I have a recent New Years tradition: listing every book I read in the past year, and selecting the best. Last New Years my two favorites were Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain and Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning. The year before that was an overwhelming feast — with Confessions, Console Wars, Dragons of Tiananmen, Ezekiel, Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran, Three Body Problem, Unseen Realm, and Weight of Glory, to name a few.
This year is dominated by my reading of the Qur’an, a book written by an Arian Christian during the end of that communion, and now considered sacred by Muslims. Understanding it has required me to better learn and internalize early Christian writings. But for sheer enjoyment, I can’t beat two histories — The History of the Future (about the founding of Oculus) and Area 51 (about the CIA, Air Force, and Department of Energy programs in that part of Nevada… and other places).
The Qur’an
1: The Opening
2: The Heifer
3: The Family of Amram
4: The Women
5: The Table
6: The Cattle
7: The Elevations
8: The Spoils
9: Repentance
10: Jonah
11: Hud
12: Joseph
13: Thunder
14: Abraham
15: The Rock
16: The Bees
17: The Night Journey
18: The Cave
The Apocrypha
Christian Writings
Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?: With A Short Discourse on Hell, by Hans Urs Von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar: Rediscovering Holistic Christianity, by Kevin Mongrain
Introduction to Patristics: Learning from the Church Fathers, by David Meconi
Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper, by Brant Pitre
Paul: A Biography, by N.T. Wright
When the Church was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers, by Marcellino D’Ambrosio
Business Strategy
The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution that Swept Virtual Reality, by Blake Harris
Transforming Nokia: The Power of Paranoid Optimism to Lead Through Colossal Change, by Risto Siilasmaa with Catherine Fredman
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
Politics and Political and Government History
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, by Annie Jacobsen
Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit, by Craig Oliver
Speculative and Science Fiction
Alpha and Omega, by Harry Turtledove
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent, by Larry Correia and performed by Adam Baldwin
Tom Stranger in… A Murder of Manatees, by Larry Correia and performed by Adam Baldwin
